Monday, October 26, 2009

Night Train to Munich

Night Train to Munich is a 1940 British movie starring Rex Harrison and Margaret Lockwood.

It is a suspence/ thriller written by also written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder (who also wrote The Lady Vanishes) and directed by Carol Reed (who also directed the Third Man).

The scene is September 1939, the Germans are marching into Prague. England is on the verge of entering what will become known as World War II.

A scientist, Dr, Bomasch (James Harcort) who is working on a new process for armour-plating, escapes to England. His daughter, Anna (Margaret Lookwood), who is also about to flee, is arrested and sent to a concentration camp. At the camp, she befriended by a Czech named Karl Marsen (Paul Henreid). However, unbeknown to Anna, he is actually an undercover German agent. Together they escape to England, and Anna finds her father.

Dr. Bomasch is now working for the Royal Navy. He is being guarded by Dickie Randall (Rex Harrison), a naval officer working undercover as an entertainer called 'Gus Bennett'. However, Marsen and his agents have watched and followed Anna, and they soon recapture Bomarsch and his daughter, returning them to Germany.

Randall then volunteers to go to Berlin in the guise of an engineer in the German army, in order to get the pair out of the country.

During Randall's quest to get Anna and her father out of the country and back to England, they meet up with two Englishmen, Charters and Caldicott (Basil Radford and Nauton Wayne). Charters recognizes Randall from Oxford University. Charters and Caldicott quickly become caught up in this quest to help Randall get Anna and her father out of Germany.

Basil Radford and Nauton Wayne reprise their roles as Charters and Caldicott from the movie The Lady Vanishes (1938).

The suspence mounts as Marsen, Randall, Anna, and Dr. Bomarsch are on the night train to Munich as Marsen becomes more and more suspicious of Randall. Will they escape and make it safely to Switzerland? Will Randall's cover be blown as he encounters his old college chum Charters?